


set fire to the rain

by patriciaselina



Category: Free!
Genre: Alternate Universe - Future, Alternate Universe - Future Fish, Crush at First Sight, Fluff, Future Fic, Gen, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-11-02
Updated: 2014-11-02
Packaged: 2018-02-23 14:11:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,632
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2550428
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/patriciaselina/pseuds/patriciaselina
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>(watch it burn as I touch your face...)</p><p>It's just supposed to be a normal safety inspection. Really. But Rei comes out of it with his heart ensnared anyway, and Makoto can't say he'd fared any better.</p>
            </blockquote>





	set fire to the rain

**Author's Note:**

  * For [umiyuki](https://archiveofourown.org/users/umiyuki/gifts).



> I was going somewhere with these prompts - they were just too good - but due to external stressors I had to cut them down to this. Hope you like them anyway, umiyuki-san!
> 
> On that note, happy birthday, Makoto Tachibana, you darling prince.
> 
> (And, yes, actually, that title was meant to be a horrible Rei pun. Apologies.)

It was just Makoto’s luck, he thinks, that he was the only one on duty whose specialty really was in putting out chemical fires.

Now, normally, this wouldn’t exactly be something Makoto would call ‘lucky’ - even after all these years, being on the front lines still terrified him greatly - but for now, just for now, he’d use that word.

Because him being the only one dealing with chemical fires meant that he was the one right here, right now. Face to face with this guy, Rei Ryugazaki, according to the sign by the door.

He’s got dark hair in a perpetually perfectly windswept ‘do, and bright purple eyes that widen behind his red spectacles when Makoto enters the room. Not exactly a people person, then. That makes two of them.

"May I…help you?" The other man mumbles, looking at Makoto and his awkward fire fighter’s regalia. Makoto knows he should’ve just made himself more presentable, he really should’ve. It’s his fault why Ryugazaki is now looking at him, warily, like he was something the dogs brought in.

"Ah, hello. I’m Makoto Tachibana, from the fire department? I’m here to conduct your regular fire inspection, err, Ryugazaki-san."

Ryugazaki looks him over once more, stills - probably really not used to having other people around in his lab, the poor dear - and turns his gaze back down to his test tubes. “Nice to meet you, Tachibana-san. And please, call me Rei.”

There’s something about Ryugazaki’s soft voice that makes Makoto’s smile soften and his eyes to crinkle fondly. “Will do, Rei-san. Do you mind if I look around for a moment?”

Rei doesn’t say anything, his cheeks perfectly, brilliantly red for some reason - maybe Makoto really shouldn’t be intruding on his concentration like this? - but he nods, briskly, once, twice, and it’s all the assent Makoto needs to excuse himself to the rest of Rei Ryugazaki’s empty lab.

The inspection is a quick one, really - Rei keeps his chemicals in the government-prescribed way, nothing less from what is expected from the country’s finest, and he does have the prescribed extinguishers and smoke detectors, and his part of the structure fits in nicely with the overall safety code of the entire building. He’s about to take his leave, but then -

But then he’s greeted by a flash of sparks and a blinding cloud of smoke, and all Makoto could now think about is oh God please let him be safe.

Makoto sees a sliver of Rei’s immaculately white lab gown and whisks him off his feet, quite literally, putting him in the far end of the hallway and telling him to go as he contains the fire. The smoke alarms are off and people are running through the hallways, and Makoto calls for backup just in case, but it’s just really, really, a smallish chemical fire with sparking effects and colorful smoke, one that Makoto takes out quietly before his teammates arrive.

He leaves his underclassmen to catalogue the fire, goes out to the hallway with a breath of fresh air, and finds himself with a can of iced coffee thrust towards his face. “What -“

The coffee is attached to a hand, attached to a barely-clothed arm, attached to a red-faced Rei Ryugazaki. An initial once-over tells him the scientist thankfully received minor scrapes, a second look tells him that the man’s lab coat and shirt weren’t as fire-safe as their owner, and a third, slightly longer look tells him that Rei Ryugazaki has an impressive set of abs. Just his luck that Rei’s eyes are averted, looking down at the ground, then, or Makoto doesn’t think he’ll know how to deal with the embarrassment he’d feel if he was caught looking too much.

"I, err, it was my fault, completely my fault. I wasn’t paying proper attention. My apologies, Makoto-san."

It’s the first time his name falls from Rei’s lips, and for some reason he can’t help but feel warmth in his chest upon hearing it. “It’s all right, Rei-san,” Makoto says, fighting back an intense, irrational urge to ruffle the man’s now-messy hair. “You’re safe, at least. That’s what’s important.”

A beat of silence passes, then two, then Rei takes a deep breath and says -

"Still, I can’t help but feel responsible. I have to take responsibility for this, Makoto-san." Takes another deep breath, and blurts out, in a rush: "Would you be fine with dinner? My treat."

Rei’s cheeks are just so lovely and red and Makoto’s pretty sure his own match perfectly, so maybe this is why Makoto only vaguely hears himself as he blurts out, “Are you like this to every fireman you meet?”

"No, just the one," Rei admits, smiling a brilliant smile, and Makoto knows he put out the fire but he thinks it’s got side effects, you see, right now he’s seeing stars.

==

"Ah, Sousuke, you’re back!" Makoto says, emerging from his bedroom to greet his roommate. "What a surprise. You don’t usually get back this early."

"I could say the same for you," Sousuke Yamazaki drawls, his one hand popping open a button on his uniform, the other rooting around their fridge for his usual after-hours bottle of cola. Normally, Nagisa said, a guy of Sousuke’s build and profession should prefer beer, but Sousuke has his choices. "Not working the night shift today?"

"Hm? Yeah, boss had me do a safety inspection over at the lab downtown." And had sent him promptly home upon seeing him come back from the lab with pink cheeks and a dreamy expression, thinking him sick. This was wrong, of course, for Makoto’s all hale and healthy and the only thing closely approaching to sickness he may have is the clenching feeling in his chest that happens when Rei calls him by name, for some reason.

"Oh, that one? My partner’s roomie works there." Sousuke says, offhandedly, shrugging off his uniform shirt and changing into his houseclothes. "You seen him? Messy hair, red glasses?"

"…uh, yeah, I’ve seen him." Gaped at him, more like, as he sashayed away in his torn-up lab coat on legs that seemed to have gone on forever. It’s embarrassing. Makoto knows this. He’s usually more professional than this, he knows it.

==

"Surely it couldn’t be that bad, Rei."

Across the table, Rei sinks his head deeper into his clasped hands, and groans. “You’re wrong, Rin-san, because it could be, and it is.”

"So you set some stuff on fire. Big deal. Not like that’s something you do on an hourly basis." Rin drawls, standing up to get cold water, but not before reaching over to poke at the exposed portion of Rei’s cheek. "You should be used to this by now, Rei."

"…not funny," Rei grumbles, burrowing in further as if he could carve a crater into the unsuspecting kitchen island from sheer will. "And it’s especially not funny when it happens in the middle of an actual live-streamed chemical demonstration. With actual real-life superiors in attendance…as if I couldn’t embarrass myself any further in front of-"

Rei catches himself quickly, clapping his hands over his mouth to prevent anything more embarrassing from slipping through, but he isn’t quick enough to stop Rin from catching on. And smiling that razor-sharp grin at his expense.

"Sooooooo."

"…do not continue that thought."

"Fireman dreamboy finally got a name, huh?"

'Fireman dreamboy' is Rin-speak for the green-eyed brown-hair Greek-god-bodied fireman Rei had made googly eyes at when Rin got him the fire station's underwear theme calendar as a gift for his birthday. Now, Rei never really did say anything about doing something he'd deem 'irrational' like having a crush on said dreamboy, but Rei never really did use the calendar for anything else other than to sigh at Mr.November, and Rin doesn't think he has to look for more conclusive evidence.

Before Rei could regain his bearings enough to say something along the lines of “Please do shut up, Rin-san,” someone beats him to it, startling him by plunking a couple of paper coffee cups on the island before saying: “Makoto Tachibana. Lives in your apartment building. Rei is absolutely smitten.”

Or, at least, that’s what Rei had been talking about when he dropped by earlier. Except the smitten part, but please, Haru can figure that one out on his own.

"Haru-aniue!" Now, Rei definitely does not do something as crass as shriek, but he might admit to dragging out the honorific for longer than he has a right to.

"Oh, you got home early, Haru. And you got the coffee. Nice work." Rin says, sipping a copious amount of coffee without batting an eyelash, only to choke. "Bleaurgh!"

"Half a bottle of Tabasco. Serves you right." Haru says, with a smug expression.

"What the - Haru, I told you I wasn’t the one who replaced the labels on the corned beef cans with mackerel ones! I don’t give a crap about your mackerel cans anyway!"

"So you say, but the point is I saw a guy in a police uniform messing with my stuff."

"Ugh." Rin groans, flopping down on the couch.

Rin knows this was actually Sousuke - he and Haru never did get along, despite them both being Rin’s childhood friends - but he decides to not throw Sousuke under the bus this time. And besides, now that he’d been enlightened about the coffee cup’s new addition, it does taste a little bit better now…

"Rei, are you going somewhere?" Haru asks, noting his little brother’s flushed face and…new tie?

"Holy shit, Rei my boy," Rin blurts out, almost clambering up their couch. "You’ve got a date!"

"Yeah, I guess I have," Rei says, a beatific smile on his face.

Haru discreetly wipes away a single (manly) tear.

God, he thinks, they do grow up fast.

**Author's Note:**

> Original prompt: _This is a pretty specific request: I'd like to see something fluffy for the Future Fish AU, with scientist Rei developing a crush on firefighter Makoto, who is assigned to do fire safety inspections at the lab where Rei works (and also ends up putting out his fair share of small fires thanks to Rei's failed experiments)._
> 
> There was also a nice SouMako OTP/BrOTP point...so sorry for not giving my tall boy BrOTP the screentime it deserves, eugh.
> 
> Again, I still hope you liked reading this!


End file.
